Shortly after President Donald Trump initially threatened tariffs on Canadian imports, the premier of British Columbia, David Enby, threatened to toll commercial trucks traveling over the Alaska Highway, the one roadway connecting Alaska to the lower 48 (which mostly runs through Canada). While the tolls haven’t happened yet, the threat revealed a key issue in the Alaskan food supply chain: there aren’t many ways to ship food up from the rest of the United States.

That said, food typically arrives in Alaska via boat, not on the bed of a truck.

“Most of the food, including the fresh food, does go by sea because the road is remote and unreliable, sometimes with fires and floods and washouts,” said Eva Holland, a journalist based in Whitehorse, Yukon. “So most food gets to Alaska by sea.”

Holland wrote about the challenges of feeding Alaska for High Country News. According to her reporting, many Alaskans rely heavily on subsistence gathering, particularly in rural areas disconnected from the state’s road system. The food that ends up on grocery store shelves, then, is typically shipped through several major ports before being sent out by plane or truck.

“You need the roads to work for the second stage of trucking, and you need weather stations in remote air strips and all this shared infrastructure,” said Holland. “There's really a collective need for public infrastructure there that's maybe not being addressed.”

Holland spoke with “Marketplace” host Amy Scott about her reporting.

To listen to the interview, use the media player above.